Whether you were kidding or not, there are actually people who base their buying decision on such trivial (stupid) things... There was this one guy who sent in a letter to Roundel about 3 months who got rid of his wife's X3 after a few months at a substantial loss and got a Subaru Forester instead all because the X3 did not have a dip stick.... So forgive us, but such dumb asses really do exist

While not having a dipstick is a negative for me, I base my car decision on a number of factors. The lack of dipstick and spare tire were some negatives in my recent decision making process. Obviously the positives outweighed the negatives on my decision, but the lack of these two items are not selling points.

As a point of note, Audi also removed the dipsticks on their latest A4 models. BUT, the tube is still there and the part can be ordered for a customer retrofit. But two big negatives for me on the Audi, no Avant (Wagon) version of the S4 and the A4 Avant cannot be purchased with 6sp MT.

My compromise was that a wagon with 6sp MT is more important than a spare tire and manual dipstick. If the S4 Avant w/ 6sp MT were available, then I would be posting on the Audi forum this afternoon.

I'll say this even if it's only for the odd sensor failure it's nice to be able to physically check the oil level as opposed to wonder if you actually have oil in the engine or not. I've seen a few people have failures where it says there is no oil in the engine. It would be nice piece of mind to not have to roll the dice on it just being a sensor.

I like the dipstick for being able to see what the oil looks like (black, smells like fuel, etc...) to help gauge the oil condition and adjust change intervals.

Why do you need a dipstick if the maintenance is included in the new cars for 4yrs/50,000 miles. If the car blows up for lack of oil and the sensor failed to pick it up, wouldn't it be BMW's fault?

What about if/when the sensor does fail and you are unsure if it actually has oil or not? Do you want to sit around waiting for a tow truck or are you going to just drive it and risk actually not having oil then getting stuck with the rebuild bill because you ignored the warning?

Or do you trust BMW oil change intervals even though the oil might be horribly contaminated. My original 335 said it could go 24,000 miles between changes while running a constant 250 oil temp. At @7500 miles I changed it and it smelled like fuel horribly.

Bottom line is it would probably cost BMW next to nothing to do it and give those of us who would actually use it a nice little piece of mind and those of us who don't want to can still use the sensor and not be bothered with it.

I could careless about Dip Stick or Spare Tire. Besides spare = more weight.
I want BMW to concentrate on lowering 3ers weight.

I would think the manual dipstick would be a weight savings. It has to weigh less than the electronic sensor in the pan, the bolts to hold it there, the extra wiring, AMP/Tyco quick connectors, electronics and other items to support the need for an electronic dipstick.

I bought one of these Multi Fluid Extractors two years ago... and it just makes oil change soo much easier. I still enjoy wrenching... but dam this make things easy as pie. Plus I was always able to remove MORE oil from the engine this way then with the tradional oil drain plug. 0.3 liter more. Plus you can suck out all that oil oil in the filter housing too.

The way things are going with BMW... whats next? Factory sealed wheels? When we want to changed summer to winters must we take it to them? Ohh... Hell no!!!!!!!!!